YouTube RPM vs CPM: what's the difference?

Two numbers sit side by side in the revenue tab of YouTube Studio and get mixed up constantly. One measures what leaves the advertiser's pocket; the other measures what reaches yours. Confuse them and you get estimates like "my CPM is $8, so a million views pays $8,000", followed by a payment that is far smaller. This guide shows the difference by following a single video from one number to the other.

Three numbers, three different questions

By YouTube's own definitions, the revenue tab holds three separate measures:

Playback-based CPM is often higher than CPM, because one playback can carry more than one ad. RPM is the lowest of the three. YouTube gives two reasons in plain words: RPM is calculated after YouTube's revenue share, and it includes all views, including the ones that were not monetized.

A worked example: from CPM to RPM step by step

Take one video on an entertainment channel with a US audience that has been viewed 100,000 times. The monetized share and the ads per playback below are assumptions chosen for illustration; your own figures are in Studio.

1. Views: 100,000.
2. Monetized playbacks: assume an ad was shown on 60% of views: 60,000 playbacks.
3. Ad impressions: an average of 1.5 ads per monetized playback: 90,000 impressions.
4. What advertisers paid: at a $4.00 CPM, 90,000 ÷ 1,000 × $4.00 = $360.
5. Playback-based CPM: $360 ÷ 60,000 × 1,000 = $6.00.
6. Your share: 55% of net ad revenue on long-form: $360 × 0.55 = $198.
7. RPM: $198 ÷ 100,000 × 1,000 = $1.98.

So on this video a $4.00 CPM turned into a $1.98 RPM, about half. Part of the gap is YouTube's 45% share; the rest is the 40,000 views that showed no ad, partly offset by playbacks that carried more than one. The result sits inside the US entertainment range in our rate table ($1–$3.50).

The monetized share varies a lot between channels. With one ad per playback and half of views monetized, the same $4.00 CPM would give an RPM of $1.10. That is why two creators with the same CPM can report very different earnings.

What pulls RPM away from CPM

• Revenue share. YouTube pays creators 55% of net ad revenue on long-form videos. On Shorts, creators keep 45% of the revenue allocated to them from the pool.
• Views without ads. Ad blockers, videos with limited ads because they fall outside the advertiser-friendly guidelines, and views where no ad was matched all count in RPM's denominator but add nothing to the numerator.
• Premium members. They see no ads. You are paid a share of membership fees for their watch time instead, and that share is part of RPM but not of CPM.
• Non-ad revenue. Channel memberships, Super Chat and Super Stickers are inside RPM too, which is why some channels that stream live see a higher RPM than their ad rates suggest.

YouTube also points out that CPM itself moves: advertisers bid higher or lower depending on the time of year, they choose which geographies to reach, and different ad formats carry different CPMs.

Channel RPM is not video RPM

The example above was one long-form video. Look at a whole channel and Shorts views join the denominator, pulling RPM down. Our own data shows the size of the effect. Among the 250 most-subscribed channels worldwide that we track, the median channel had 42.25 million long-form views a month on 30 October 2026 and 28.07 million views a month on videos of three minutes or less. Build an example entertainment channel from those two medians, with a US audience:

• Long-form: 42.25 million × ($1–$3.50) ÷ 1,000 = $42,250–$147,875.
• Short videos: 28.07 million × ($0.03–$0.10) ÷ 1,000 = $842–$2,807.
• Total $43,092–$150,682 on 70.32 million views. Channel RPM: $0.61–$2.14.

Long-form RPM is $1–$3.50, yet the channel as a whole lands about 39% lower. Revenue did not fall; the denominator grew. YouTube makes the same point: your RPM may go down when unmonetized views increase, even if your revenue stays the same. For Turkish channels the effect is much stronger, because short videos make up a larger share of their views. Our Shorts guide explains how that format pays.

Which number to use, and when

• "What will I earn this month?" Use RPM. Monthly views × RPM ÷ 1,000 answers it directly.
• "How much do advertisers value my content?" Use playback-based CPM. It is the cleanest read on topic and audience quality.
• "Why did my RPM drop?" Look at both. If CPM held steady while RPM fell, ad prices are not the problem; the share of views without ads is (usually Shorts or limited ads).
• Comparing with other channels. Use RPM. Many "CPM" figures quoted online are really RPM, or do not say which they are. Check the source before relying on one.

For the levers you actually control, see how to increase your YouTube RPM.

What RPM leaves out

YouTube states that RPM does not cover two things: revenue from selling merchandise or using the merch shelf, and revenue from brand deals and sponsorships. For many mid-sized channels sponsorships are larger than ad revenue. And because RPM rolls several revenue sources into one figure, it cannot tell you which source caused a swing in total revenue. For that you need to look at each source separately.

Which one does Earnoscope use?

Our YouTube money calculator and every table on this site use RPM, because the thing we are estimating is what the creator keeps. We hold separate rates for long-form and for Shorts, calculate each and add them up, which avoids the denominator problem described above. Sources and validity dates for every rate are on the methodology page.

FAQ

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